Zen gardens, Buddhist temples, ume blossoms...

Last weekend we went to Bainji Temple in nearby Kurume to see the ume (plum) blossoms. Not quite cherry blossom season yet, but we caught the tail end of the plums.

First we stopped by a restaurant and ate under a phallic mask. Either that or this guy told a lot of lies.

Most (though not all) restaurants in Japan have plastic displays of many of their dishes in the front window (thank God, or ordering food could really be hard). This dish was a nice hamburger patty/sushi roll mix for the kiddies - complete with a Hello Kitty toy.

We stopped by Suitengu Temple first - the "water" temple. These are prayer cards. You give a Buddhist monk about $5 and he writes a prayer for you, then you hang it inside the temple grounds.

Here's looking back at the entrance of Suitengu Temple.

And here's a Buddhist monk talking with his friend. (The monk is the one NOT in jeans.)

Here at Bainji Temple is Miss Serenity among the beautiful plum blossoms.

Here's me, looking very cool.

Here's just a small portion of the carving on the wooden door on the front of the temple. The whole door was just as detailed with many dragons.

Here's an area with hundreds of shrines packed in together - each one is similar to a tombstone except no one is buried - they are cremated. (Not sure where the ashes go.)

Here's a zen garden - the sand is raked into designs and rows.

I thought I'd do a baseball slide into home plate across their zen garden, but somehow I thought that would give me bad karma. (I might be mixing up eastern religions...they do love baseball here.)

Here's more shrines above the temple on a hill.

Here I am meditating at the top of the stairs overlooking the temple.

The sun was starting to set as we walked along the beautiful shrines and trees.

Here's Miss Serenity next to another one of these huge Sago Palm things.

And Serenity once again, walking up to the main temple thorugh another zen garden.


It was over 70 degrees today (Saturday the 3rd of March) and we're heading out on a bike ride tomorrow to enjoy the weather. Serenity made a movie of our day today and will post it soon...